All Books Not Equal to Squabbling Family
‘Substance of Fire’ Opens at Second Stage Theater
Charles Isherwood
April 27, 2014: Although it’s roughly the age of a recent college graduate, Jon Robin Baitz’s play The Substance of Fire at times seems to have grown some gray whiskers. Watching the sure-footed new revival of the play that opened at the Second Stage Theater on Sunday night, featuring standout performances by the Australian actor John Noble and the ever-vibrant Charlayne Woodard, I kept thinking of dramas about family, money and morality written way back in the early years of the 20th century by Harley Granville Barker. This is not to suggest that Mr. Baitz’s play has withered into obsolescence: family, money and morality are every bit as potent subjects today as they were in 1991, when the play was first produced, or for that matter 1901. It’s just that the tug of war at the center of the play, over the future of a high-toned publishing firm on the verge of eclipse, already seems remote from our Kindle-lit era, like a debate over a horse-and-buggy rental business.
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